Racing Kings throws out the whole idea of attacking the enemy king. Instead, both players line up on one side of the board and race their own kings to the finish line — the 8th rank. First king across wins. It’s chess reimagined as a footrace, and it comes with one strict rule that keeps it clean: checks are completely banned.
Invented by variant designer V. R. Parton back in 1961, it’s a fast, tactical dash where every tempo counts. Here’s how to run it.
Racing Kings in 10 seconds
- Players: 2
- The twist: No checks allowed — you can’t check your opponent or move into check.
- How you win: Be the first to get your king onto the 8th rank.
- Where to play: Lichess (native variant).
The starting position
Racing Kings starts with no pawns and a very unusual setup: every piece is crammed onto the bottom two ranks (ranks 1 and 2), with the two armies side by side rather than facing off.
- Black takes the left half: king on a2, queen on a1, and its rooks, knights, and bishops filling the b-, c-, and d-files.
- White takes the right half: king on h2, queen on h1, and its pieces filling the e-, f-, and g-files.
Both kings begin on the second rank (a2 and h2), staring straight up the board at the 8th-rank finish line six rows away. There are no pawns to get in the way — just a scramble of pieces and a race to run.
The rules of Racing Kings
Pieces move and capture exactly as in standard chess. Everything unusual comes from two rules:
1. No checks — ever
This is the rule that defines the variant. Lichess puts it bluntly: “Checks are entirely forbidden: not only is it forbidden to move one’s king into check, but it is also forbidden to check the opponent’s king.”
So there’s no such thing as a check here — you literally cannot make a move that attacks the enemy king, and you can never move your own king onto an attacked square. This keeps the race honest: you can’t just park a piece to freeze your rival’s king in place with endless checks. Captures are totally fine, by the way — you can still trade and grab pieces exactly like normal chess. You just can’t do it in a way that gives check.
2. First king to the 8th rank wins
The goal is simple: get your king to any square on the 8th rank (the far side) before your opponent does. Touch the back row and you win the race.
The equaliser (the draw rule)
There’s one clever wrinkle to make up for White moving first. From Lichess: “When White moves their king to the eighth row, and Black, immediately on the next move, moves their king to the eighth rank, the game is declared a draw.” In other words, if White reaches the finish first, Black gets one immediate move to also reach the 8th rank — and if Black makes it, the race is a tie. This compensates for White’s built-in first-move advantage, which matters a lot in a pure race. (If Black reaches the 8th rank first, Black just wins outright — there’s no equaliser for White.)
How to win at Racing Kings
Racing Kings has a strategy all its own. A few keys:
- Race, but don’t rush blindly. Speed wins, but a king that sprints into a square where it can’t advance — or into a spot where every forward square is covered — stalls out. Plan the whole route.
- Use your pieces to clear the path and block theirs. Since no one can give check, your pieces exist to open lanes for your own king and to throw roadblocks in front of the enemy king. Controlling the squares in front of their king is like setting up hurdles.
- Watch the tempo math carefully. Because of the equaliser rule, White often needs to arrive two effective tempi ahead to win cleanly, or arrive in a way Black can’t immediately match. Count moves to the finish for both kings before you commit.
- Knights are gold. A knight can cover a forward square without being blocked and can leap over traffic — perfect for both escorting your king and jamming the opponent’s.
- Keep your king’s escape squares open. You can never sit on a checked square, so if all your king’s forward squares get covered, you’re stuck shuffling. Always leave yourself a legal way forward.
Where to play Racing Kings
Lichess offers Racing Kings as a built-in variant — rated or casual, any time control, versus humans or the bot. It’s a fixture of the site’s variant lineup. Chess.com doesn’t include Racing Kings in its variant menu, so Lichess is your track. It’s also playable over the board if you set the pieces up on ranks 1–2 and agree to enforce the no-check rule.
Racing Kings FAQ
Is Racing Kings hard to learn? It’s one of the more beginner-friendly variants — the goal (race to the far side) is dead simple, and there’s no checkmate to calculate. The depth comes from tempo counting and blocking, which you pick up quickly.
Can you capture in Racing Kings? Yes. Captures work exactly like normal chess. The only restriction is that no move — capture or otherwise — is allowed to give check.
What happens if White reaches the 8th rank first? Black gets one immediate move to also land its king on the 8th rank. If Black succeeds, it’s a draw (the equaliser); if not, White wins.
Why are there no pawns? The variant is a pure race, and pawns would clog the board and slow the sprint. Removing them keeps kings moving and the games sharp.
Try another variant
Racing Kings is chess as a footrace. If you like variants that rewrite the win condition, try the explosive Atomic chess, the backwards-goal Antichess, or the four-way brawl of 4-Player Chess — all waiting in the variants hub.
Written and fact-checked by the Chess Lab Academy Editorial Team (AI-assisted, human-edited) · Rules verified against the Lichess Racing Kings variant rules and Wikibooks; starting position legality-verified with python-chess · Last verified 2026-07-13 · Sources · How we verify content.